rants

Many Fellows are getting ready to participate to the Fellowship Meeting in Bolzano, nov. 11th but I noticed that many still don’t know how to reach Bolzano. Here are a few tips.

The closest airports are in Verona (Italy) and  Innsbruck (Austria, just across the border).  Following closest are Bergamo and Milano, where many cheap flights operate.

Bolzano has also a train station connected to all major Italian cities.  You can check the train’s schedules on many websites, like trenitalia (and others all around Europe).

More detailed info are also available on South Tyrol website. 

Reserve your place soon, the conference will be fun and interesting.

On the new list discussions (where Fellows are organizing the next Fellowship Meeting with FSFE Team), Fellow Bjoern compared prices to travel from Stuttgart to the Fellowship Meeting.  It seems that taking the car can be cheapers, so he is offering some place with his car.  I think it’s a good idea and hope that other people can do the same and share car rides to reach Bolzano.  Bjoern also found cheaper hotels.  Good job.

BTW, I would appreciate a ride from Milano 🙂 

By talking with members of the Free Software community, I realised that one of the least considered reasons to join is the fact that Fellows can promote their projects, plans and ideas to further Free Software through the Fellowship.  That means having an international audience of 800 (and growing) dedicated and smart people. It also means working directly with FSFE to further Free Software, in your home town as well as in Bruxelles.

There are already example of Fellows proposing projects and using the Fellowship for Free Software.  Stephan, for example, suggested to have an international meeting of Fellows.  Emmanuele proudly used his affiliation in some articles regarding the abuse of electronic scrutiny in past Italian elections.  Shane suggested to use the power of the Fellowship to improve Free Software advocacy

Imagine what you can do with the power of the Fellows. Imagine starting an information campaign about Free Software in your home town or your old school, all with the help and support of FSFE via the Fellowship.  Does it sound good?  Stupid?  Say it, I’m all ears.

Organizing a meeting like the Fellowship Meeting is not a piece of cake.  Luckily FSFE and its Fellows can count on a  wide international network of friends.  In this case our friends in Bolzano offered to co-locate the Fellowship Meeting with the South Tyrol Software Freedom Conference. 

Thanks to the friendship with SFSCon, the Fellows not only have the facility to meet in person but also enjoy a great deal of backend support for the logistics, like dealing with registration of attendees.  SFSCon has provided also special deal packages for accommodation.  It’s good to be part of a big community 🙂

Keep an eye here (constantly updated) and on the SFSCon web site to register soon.

Yesterday has been a very exciting day for the organization of the international meeting of the Fellows. 

Yesterday the FSFE Team has confirmed that a very special announcement will be done during the meeting.  The Fellows that will be in Bolzano will know first, before anybody else something really important for the future.

So, the agenda of the meeting will look like this:

•  Special announcement by FSFE
• A report from FSFE Team about ongoing issues
• Advancing the Advocacy project: improve the material, involve more Fellows and gather ideas for local actions

There is also a new webpage for the event.  It’s a very very basic draft, more information will be added while they become available.

The agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Fellowship of FSFE is shaping slowly at the new discussion list. 

So far two proposals have been made and nobody objected on the list:

• A report from FSFE Team about the work being done at EU level with the help and support of the Fellows
• Advancing the Advocacy project: improve the material, involve more Fellows and gather ideas for local actions

We will have 4/5 hours, so there is space for another topic, at least.  And it is still possible to change them, if you hate them so much (and you are coming to Bolzano).  You should join the discussion now if you want to suggest your favorite topic or support the existing one. We should start fixing the agenda by next weekend, Sept.  9/10.

During the discussion on the new list for Fellows it came out that the main reason for the upcoming international meeting of the Fellows is the opportunity for FSFE team members to meet and thank the Fellows for their help and support.

When the Fellowship was launched a comment appeared on the blog of a patent attorney.  He noted that "FSFE was calling its arms to the battle against software patents". 

Indeed, he was totally right: the Fellows have helped fighting and winning that battle, probably without even noticing.  It was thanks to the enthusiastic contributions of the first Fellows that FSFE was able to support Ciaran economically to be a lobbyist in Bruxelles instead of a bartender, as it seemed to be his destiny at that time.  Indeed, he did a great job, but a big thank you goes to all Fellows.

Fellow Shane has opened the new discussion list (Fellows: see your mailbox)  for the upcoming First International Meeting of the Fellowship.  Shane suggests to reserve some time to discuss about the Advocacy section of this website, its use and its future.  I think it’s a great idea.  What do you think?  Join the list or comment to this post.